Meet an 'angel of the night' from Mfangano Island

Viola Atieno, 21, at a maternity ward at Sena Level 4 Hospital. [Gardy Chacha, Standard]

"I am a woman. I know what it feels like to be in labour. I know the risk of dying during childbirth. This is why when I was called to attend to this young woman, I did not waste a minute. I knew she needed to be attended to in a hospital setting," Odira says.

With her son beside her, Atieno could not hide her happiness at being a mother. She too believes hospital birth is safer, and is grateful to Odira for rushing to her aid.

Odira's quick reaction to Atieno's plight is especially profound because for someone her age - with grey hair to show for it - it takes a higher level of commitment to leave the comforts of a warm bed to venture into the rural night to 'work'.

Homabay County Government pays CHVs a monthly stipend of Sh2,000. The amount is minuscule even by Mfangano Island standards.

"We are happy that the county appreciates what we do with the little they give us. But for me, I do this because I think it is my time to give back to my community dutifully," she says.

A grandmother of 20, Odira is a farmer. Every week, she makes one or two trips around the village to enrol pregnant women for ante-natal clinics (ANC).

The CHVs are equipped with pregnancy test kits, which help them identify pregnancies in the villages and influence the women to visit the hospital for clinics.

Dr Dan Okoro, the Kenya Country advisor on sexual and reproductive health to United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), says ANCs are critical to protecting the lives of an expectant mother and her baby.

He says: "Through the ANCs, a lot is monitored: the state of health of the woman and the foetus, detection of illnesses such as eclampsia (high blood pressure in pregnancy) - which is deadly, access to supplements such as folic acid and iron that protects the foetus, conducting imaging to detect any abnormalities on the foetus, and general monitoring of the pregnancy."

The organisation has trained midwives and CHVs in Homabay County; deepening their skills - and collaboration spirit - to attend to pregnant women and save lives.

Mfangano Island is the largest of four islands that are part of Suba North. The others are: Ringiti, Remba and Takawiri. Together they form an administrative block with nine public health facilities, five clinical officers and one resident doctor: attending to a population of 30,943.

The midwives (with the help of CHVs) are often the first and last line of medical care in Mfangano for most of the time.

Just before midday, having rested a bit, and confident that Atieno is no longer in need of her services, Odira takes off, walking back home; almost unaware of the commendable sacrifices she made to protect the lives of a mother and her baby.

Would she do it again? "As long as I am alive and able to move around, I will continue doing it," she says.